🌱 The Evolution of Vegan Dining in Vancouver

If you’ve been vegan or plant-based in Vancouver for a while, you already know: things weren’t always this good.

Before oat milk lattes, house-made cheeses, and entire vegan comfort-food menus, the scene was… well… limited. (If you're nodding right now, we see you. We’ve lived this life.)

Today, Vancouver is considered one of North America’s most vegan-friendly cities — but that didn’t happen overnight. And despite all the progress, diners still face inconsistency, confusion, and menu guesswork that can instantly ruin a night out.

Here’s how the plant-based food scene evolved, what’s still missing, and why The Hangry SaVEG is stepping in to help restaurants level up with clarity, confidence, and delicious options.

🌿 The Early Days: “What Do Vegans Eat?”

Let’s rewind to the late 90s and early 2000s.

Back then, being vegan meant:

• ordering fries and a side salad

• removing cheese from everything

• explaining (for the 40th time) that butter isn’t vegan

• praying that at least one place would have tofu

The Naam was one of the few consistent options — and iconic, yes — but beyond that? The struggle was real.

Here’s the part that matters: Some of us at The Hangry SaVEG have been vegan since way before it was easy. We learned how to cook for ourselves, reinvent family favourites, and navigate restaurants with creativity and a sense of humour.

Those experiences shaped the work we do today.

🍔 The Boom: Vegan Restaurants Start Appearing

By the 2010s, Vancouver began seeing:

• dedicated vegan cafés

• plant-based bakeries

• creative comfort-food restaurants

• vegan sushi (a game changer)

• food trucks embracing vegan culture

  
  

Suddenly, we had choices — real choices. But most restaurants still kept vegan options at a bare minimum, and clarity wasn’t always there.

🥑 The Mainstream Shift: Vegan Goes Everywhere

The last few years brought the biggest transformation:

• Non-dairy milks became a standard part of café culture. Oat milk in particular surged in popularity and became the most commonly ordered plant-based option for lattes and espresso drinks.

• Chain restaurants added plant-based items

• Grocery stores expanded their vegan aisles

• Chefs began experimenting with cashew cheeses, seitan, jackfruit, and mushroom “meats”

• Menus started marking items as vegan or vegan-optional

For many diners, this was long overdue. But here’s the truth:

Accessibility does not equal clarity.

And clarity is everything.

⚠️ The Problem: Vegan Dining Still Has Gaps

Even in 2025, restaurants struggle with:

• unclear labeling

• servers unsure about ingredients

• inconsistent menu terms (is “plant-friendly” the same as vegan? usually no.)

• substitutions that confuse the kitchen

• cross-contamination concerns

• dishes that look vegan but aren’t

This is where frustration builds — and where trust is lost.

And that is exactly why The Hangry SaVEG was created.

✔️ Enter The Hangry SaVEG: Bringing Confidence Back to the Table

We realized that our original plan — opening our own vegan café — wouldn’t impact enough people. When COVID hit, we paused, re-evaluated, and asked:

How could we help the vegan community on a bigger scale?

The answer was simple:

💡 Help restaurants become confidently vegan-friendly.

Not just by adding menu items —but by making their menus clear, their staff knowledgeable, and their diners rest easy knowing what they’re ordering.

Our services help restaurants:

• label menus properly

• identify vegan-convertible dishes

• train staff on plant-based knowledge

• create a welcoming, inclusive environment

• avoid easy mistakes that turn into negative reviews

And when a restaurant meets all the standards we look for? It can earn a spot on the upcoming SaVEG-Approved List — our curated map of restaurants we trust.

Because if we wouldn’t recommend it to our own friends and families, we won’t recommend it to you.

🌟 The Future of Vegan Dining in Vancouver

Vancouver has come a long way — from a city with barely a handful of options to a place where vegan dining is creative, exciting, and evolving every year.

But there’s still room to grow. And we’re here to make sure that growth is consistent, accessible, inclusive, and (most importantly)… delicious.

The Hangry SaVEG is building a future where dining out feels easy — not stressful. Where menus are clear. Where staff are confident. Where vegans, vegetarians, and plant-curious diners all feel welcome.

And we can’t wait to see what Vancouver tastes like next.